Patent Document 1 describes a circulating banknote handling apparatus including a cartridge housing banknotes. This banknote handling apparatus is configured to handle banknotes each having an anti-counterfeit identifier such as a security thread or a hologram. A banknote having an identifier does not have a uniform thickness, i.e., is thick at a portion, and thin at the other portion. If such banknotes are oriented and stacked in the same manner, the identifiers overlap with each other at the same position. Thus, a top surface of the stacked banknotes is inclined. This may increase the possibility of stacking failure or feeding failure.
To cope with such a problem, the banknote handling apparatus of Patent Document 1 includes an inverting unit branched from some midpoint of a banknote transport path. If a target banknote is oriented in the same manner as the preceding banknote of the same denomination, the inverting unit inverts the target banknote before stacking it in the cartridge. This configuration prevents the stacking of the identifiers predetermined number of times or more continuously at the same position.